She looked quaint in all her glory,
Modest, absolute yet peppy.Twice in sight and all I'm gone,Will I ever see her again when all this is done?An instant I wish,To see thy imperfections nearest,An instant I wish,I could heed thy voice, dearest.Confess my name once and down the hill I shall tumble.
Confess my name once and down my heart shall stumble."Hmm. Still fantasizing, eh?" The voice startled the young boy inducing him to shut his biro in his journal to offer his entire attention to his friend.
"She's not your league, Greene, even in the dream world," The chunky man consoled in his usual way with a light tap on the blonde-haired boy's shoulders. "Here, I got something to eat." He dropped an opaque plastic bag of laminated loaf on the tattered three-legged mite-eaten study table.The young boy stared at the loaf as if it had offended him in his previous life.
"Don't stare at it that way," he plopped on a mouse deformed sofa with a heavy huff. "If anything, give it thanks: it's been the reason for my survival and now yours." He said as he discarded his once thick now thin heeled trainers with the tip of his toes.
Bread and water.
The orphanage was way adequate. At least, despite the bullying from other kids who hadn't been favored by adoption behind closed doors, he ate decent food, wore presentable clothes, and slept on warm, comfortable beds. He missed that even though he had no allies or acquaintances.
The young boy vacated the only furniture in proper shape that the small underground burrow, he now called home, owned with his journal in hand.
"Joseph was a dreamer," he said as he strolled across the three-step space to the floor-level stuck out spring mattress, tucked his journal beneath the pillow on his side of the ruffled bed before continuing, "he was rebuked by his father and brothers because of those dreams."
He now leaned on the ever humid wall which contributed to the stale air of the windowless underground basement, pocketed his hands in his grey striving-clean Burberry imprinted hoodie, and lifted his azure orbs to the flickering 7 Watt LED bulb above their heads. The poor thing tried its best to illuminate the tiny dim room for as long as he could remember and reckoned it was time to retire.
The chunky fellow, now opposite him, ingested his last bite on one go, which on decent occasion will be three bites worth. "I am no believer, kid, therefore, I don't give a damn about whatever mumbo-jumbo is scripted in that waste of paper sheets and ink." He leaned his head against the wall.
In the silence of the dull morning, Greene could hear the faint roaring of an engine to live then crunches of the two minutes walk neighbor's truck wheels against the gravel pull out of the driveway. The faint barking of his Spaniel resonated seconds later and then silence. Dead silence.
Then came Mama T's cane thumping on the wooden floors."I don't know why but I believe that we'll cross paths again someday," he sounded distant yet confident at the shyly bubbling merriment of not only talking and being close to her but also of scenting the fragrance she wore.
His friend laughed so hard, loud. Loud enough to have Mama T double tap on the basement ceiling for disturbing the peace of the serene atmosphere.
"That Catholic orphanage did you no good as a man. You aim beyond the imaginable."
An image shaped in his mind. It was of a pretty slender young girl. Her milkish brown face was as he remembered however, her hair fluctuated between the braids he'd first seen her in during an interview with her mother on a roadside TV store and the voluminous curls she'd been with back in the mall a week ago.
She looked more beautiful ten feet away, that which only made him wonder how she'll look up close."Tell me, what other thing are you good at besides stealing," the chunky man scrolled his physique, "looking good and preaching the impossible?"
Fadeel was a recent acquaintance he'd made since his robbery incident at the antique shop opposite the mall. Fear of being hounded by the police if he dawdled a little more, he thoughtlessly bent into an ally where he hid for sometimes behind a dumpster with a rare antiquated elephant's tusk in his hand like a rare piece of Mexican gold during which he wondered why the police hadn't trailed towards the direction he took a good two minutes later.
He said nothing.
"You're well aware that neither what we do will take us out of this shit we're in, right?" Fadeel pulled out a cigarette from his breast pocket, lit it, and stuffed the pungent air more than it already was. "You can't keep looting this way forever. You'll get caught sooner than you can snap a finger."
Now, Fadeel was as well hidden, not behind the dumpster though. He crouched at a shaded corner of the ally dressed in rags, a huge old straw hat shaded half his face leaving nothing to the curious eyes but his short stubbled chin and thin lips. Beside him was an empty chipped bowl. Back then, Greene was terrified about him more than he was about the chasing police.
"You did well, kid," he had said, not twitching a muscle further. "This is one of the idle alleys of this town. Funny, right?" His lips thinned like that of a slithering snake. "In the big and boisterous city of New York not only can we find a serene corner," he lifted his hat to an eerie dirty chubby face, "we can also find a burglar in broad daylight."
"Who are you?"
The man stayed silent for a while. "Fadeel. Fadeel the mendicant."
Greene's eyes lowered, slowly relaxing on the paved path. "That's some huge stuff to carry around at this time of the day. Why that?"The young blond remained lip-stitched. Then Fadeel huffed. "You might wanna stay here a while, take a rest with me, at least until we're out of prying eyes. Ah, how I hate summer sometimes. The damn sun is a great hinder to my income."
Their conversation became flexible with time yet Greene withheld. As a trust issue invalid who never laid a dime of it to a soul in the place he spent half his life knew better than trust a three hours acquaintance.
"It's about time we leave," Fadeel estimated finally bulging to a five feet ten ample height. "Gotta truck two blocks from here. Just like me, it stands out," he adjusted his straw hat further down his face and began walking away, "don't take too long."
When he told Fadeel, once he made it to a scrap of a truck at a deserted end, that he had no home, the man laughed. "Well, kid," he started the engine, "ya lucky I gotta place for an extra body."
"I got a bargain," Fadeel puffed out a grey cloud. "Are you good at technology? You look quite smart."
Fortunately, he was. Since he hit eight, he had always been fascinated by gadgets of all kinds most especially with computer systems. Sometimes he was summoned whenever those in the orphanage malfunctioned, usually minor issues. All thanks to his first adoptive parents.
"Yes."
Fadeel groaned as he tilted to the side to pull out a poorly folded piece of paper, stretched it to his comrade, and said, "Read that."
It was a carefully ripped out piece of information from a newspaper that alleged the surge of cyberpunks modifying their attack strategy to reap undeserved money from others' blood, sweat, and tears. The information further emphasized a perpetual discipline to the unfortunate.
Greene questioningly stared at Fadeel still not understanding why he gave him that and how it was related to the deal.
Fadeel took one last drag, tossed the cigarette stub on the dusty concrete floor where he extinguished it with a harsh smash. "That's something promising. You good with tech and I'm good with guidance. We succeed, Fifty-fifty, Good?"
Greene looked at the piece of paper in his hold as if it spoke to him words that he still could not decipher.
"I'm not doing this," He simply stated.
"Why not?" Fadeel grimly inquired.
"It's wrong and we could get caught," he reread the line which mentioned perpetual discipline, his body crawled.
Fadeel again burst into a hysterical peal of laughter causing Mama T's cane to come into action again. "Wrong you say? Isn't taking what's not yours naturally wrong?" He turned his head to the tusk which leaned on the wall, "The only wrong thing here is the greedy rich who still don't get enough of making more money."
"We won't be doing no wrong as long as we have a target." He looked into nothing, eyes cold from years of tough sceneries. "Look here, kid, but first, look at you, look around you, behind you, and ahead of you; looking at you, you're an unfortunate wiseass with a rough past, a rough present but a questioning future. You can make it bright, live big, eat good food, wear clean clothes, live in luxurious homes, and have all that you want if you act and think out of the rules of the world."
"Looking around you; there's misery upon the grassroots because of a selfish regime. The rich get richer meanwhile the poor get poorer. Still, that's if you succumb to the rules of the world. A little insubordination is fine sometimes."
"We all have different reasons why we fight for survival; to fulfill more, to see what our kids will become of this life, to prove someone wrong or right, to want to see and hold someone, just to name a few. So kid, if what you fear is the outcome of wanting to live to expectation then you shouldn't live at all because down here sucks as hell." He paused for a while, stood up, and walked to his comrade.
"Is there any hell worst than where you are?" He glimpsed the surroundings and tapped the young boy's shoulder, "Think about it." And sped up the creaky stairs leading out of the basement.
Marila posed into a straight face statue on Eloïse's bed, her legs yoga folded and said nothing. They'd all returned home after a partially good stroke not so good show: at least she's had the opportunity to see Craig again and talked to him longer than their first, contrarily, she'd missed the exhibit of her second haute couture after improperly digesting the prior. And not to forget, she'd missed encountering Leo, Mary Mcbourne, and the celebrities. What a drastic loss. Hopefully they showed up in the days to come. "You're getting annoying with this, Marila." Eloïse, while on the vanity mirror, unclipped her leaf filigree earrings and carefully placed it in her jewelry box. "He's not that...straightfaced." She made a face before releasing the last word. After deserting her father, who had driven them home and thought she had wasted so much time than necessary for a lady in the restroom, her friends had their eyes bulging out like a scroll and Marila won't stop asking her repeated
It was the last day of the fashion week, Eloïse, fortunately, got to meet Coco again and had an autograph. Unfortunately, she didn't get to see Lupita but at least other celebrities showed up though she wasn't much into them like Bennie and Marila were. In the course of the event, Eloïse had been neck-stretching into the crowd hoping to see Craig, hoping he'd not left, hoping something held him back but all hopes shattered at his absence. Sometimes, she'd been tempted to go to the electrical district but ended up biting back from it. Her opinion or query wasn't going to change a thing. Nonetheless, Eloïse's heart was like parceled granulated sugar since her mum informed her a day ago that Leonard called to have a dialogue about her haute couture, and tomorrow she'll be meeting him. Her head screamed with joy. Her dream of becoming a renowned fashion designer was a step away. The sad thing about the day was her friends left at dusk. They'd planned on visiting
Eloïse froze. She scanned for an ounce of prank on her friends faces but there was none. They could be mistaken. The only person she knew Marila to have a problem with his facial expressions was Craig and she knew him not to be in town since the previous day. "Who is it?" She quizzed with uncertainty, flickering her gaze from sterling grey to bluish-green eyes. "Hello, Ladies." She heard a familiar yet shocking nectareous melody that led to a charming demeanor in a body-clinging tee on a pair of three-quarter leg Bermuda cargo shorts. It was her first time to see him in casuals, he looked wonderfully dashing. In his grip was an opaque white biodegradable plastic bag. His lips twitched to a barely noticeable side smile. Eloïse's breathe stuck midway through her trachea with her eyes, widened like saucers. "Hi, Craig," her friends responded in unison. "I...uh...thought you left." "Thought I would. Unfortunately, circumstances didn't let me." Marila pretentiously cleared her throa
She filled her friends in after dinner as it was her unpaid job to do so. Out of prying ears, they chatted away but not without Eloïse assisting in assembling her friend's luggage which wasn't easy considering Marila's sea of outfits. It overflowed to the extent of Eloïse offering an extra suitcase for the remainder. They had barely four hours to their flight and the trio wanted to make it as memorable as they could. "When's our Cali cruise?" Marila asked. "You are the working class here, you tell us." Eloïse retorted. "Well, I suggest the first two weeks of summer." "Finn and I planned on hiking the Havasupai fall during the first week, so..." "The next two weeks then. Good?" Bennie zipped her suitcase. "Good." "Good for me too. Not like I have anything doing of my life anyway. Oh my, I envy you, Bennie. I heard the Havasupai falls are gorgeous." "Heard so too. Finn is the reason I'm visiting it. Said he's been there o
Eloïse entirely understood the puffiness of her eyes as she stared at her reflection on a roughly hand-cleaned portion of the vaporized mirror. She had spent close to an hour talking with Ace, another one fantasizing about the audition, and half of the next hour chopped by the tension of the meeting with Leonard LeBeau all of which left her with basically one and a half hours of sleep until her alarm went off.The meeting was scheduled at nine leaving her with barely fifty minutes. Her phone buzzed. Still situated in the comfortable corner of a pastel pink single sofa near her bed where she had flung it the previous night, Eloïse rounded up the application of gloss on her puckered lips before reaching the noisy gadget. "Hey, good morning, Bennie," she used the opportunity to widely spread open the curtains and windows. "How was the journey?" "Safe until now that I found fake ass roaches in my dresses," She calmly said. "With a cutely written supposedly thr
But for the noisy engine of the old truck, they had ridden in human silence for a while along a serene route almost void of human presence. The boy ought to have been skeptical, unfortunately, he wasn't since the beggar was kind enough to free him from the real danger. "What ya name, kid?" The young blond said nothing at first as his brain calculated, analyzed, and concluded. "Greene." "Greene," he repeated as if testing the temperature of the water before doing his business. "Why that?" Again, he asked. Greene finally sighted a tattered excuse of a convenient store after minutes of riding. Its once brilliant painted walls of what should have been a striking shade of bubble gum pink were now flaking cream white. The rust embellished Break and Take retro signboard which had seen better days than he had, bizarrely hung on a risky forty-eight-degree angle. He would have thought the place was abandoned if he hadn't seen an old lady walk out of it
"Good morning, Zaphrina ma belle," Leo, with his thick French-accented voice, greeted as he quickly sprang out of his leather chair to welcome the duo from the door. He kissed both Zaphrina's cheeks before turning to Eloïse, "and this must be the talented future queen of fashion," he kissed Eloïse too who had reddened by the sycophancy. "Eloïse," she said with a radiant smile, even though not asked. She had surprised herself there by not faltering with the whole festivity going on in her head, chest, and stomach. Eloïse was indeed star wrecked. "Oh, wonderful name. Come, come, have a seat." Leonard was a typical ancient French six feet quarter to fifty years old man with glimmering dark brown hair which was always in its signature length and gelled style. His face was impeccably smooth as a baby's skin and comprised of deep dark eyes, a hawk's nose, and small lips. In his costume demi-Saison, he sauntered to his chair like he was afraid to step on an ant which made him seem to be
There was enough to feed a small town that Eloïse couldn't help but ask the occasion. "For today and a hopeful future," her father replied with a gentle wine glass lift. "To you, the family, the company, and you again most especially." She smiled, but as preoccupied as her mind was she managed to remember and inform Beth of her well-received and appreciated surprise. The mashed potatoes mouthful Bethany squinted her eyes in utter annoyance. "There's something cute behind every malicious act you cook," Eloïse forked a diced carrot, "quit trying to be a terrorist will you?" "Let me be," she replied flatly. "If this is how you behave in school, no wonder you're single at seventeen. You scare the boys away," she muttered. "You know nothing about what's going on and I told you before, I don't need a boyfriend. Boys are trash," she whisper yelled. "Then let me. You know I'm always all ears." Her relationship with Beth wasn't the best as far as sisterhood was concerned and she didn't